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the bread and circuses reference is from "Take Back your Government" by RAH

Or it might be a tad older

Hey, it worked for the Romans.

NetBSD Handbook

OpenBSD FAQ

I think NetBSD's Introduction to TCP/IP Networking has a pretty good intro about IPv6, even if you do not use NetBSD.

Here are some places I want to visit:

THE AMERICAS:
1. The Inka trail in Peru ($300 for 2-day walk, must travel in a group) even includes a tunnel and ends at Machu Picchu. Numerous guides offer tours, just shop around in Cusco.
2. Yaxchilan Ruins on Usumacinta river in Mexico include ruins of possibly oldest bridge in North America. Great adventure to see. I was stopped by the army who sealed off the entire area. To be flooded by dam. link1, link2 to people who have been there
3. Mexico - their pyramids (Sun,Moon,Oaxaca) are built without knowledge of the wheel (even though their kids played with toy carts) and without horsepower.
4. ESO telescopes in Chile ESO visitor information - must register far in advance.
5. Hoover Dam, Golden Gate Bridge (US)

EUROPE:
1. Cloaka Maxima, Ancient Rome
2. Reconstruction of Frauenkirche, Dresden
3. World War II Bunkers and SS-20 silos (Bouda) in Czech Republic (Visitors only permitted May-August)
4. TGV trains in France
5. Ancient Mines (Cornwall and Sinai- Egypt

Look at the link I posted above. Max plate dissipation for one side of a 12AX7 is 1.1W; therefore the total dissipation for the three 12AX7s is going to be under 6.6W. This is no big problem.

In general, Class A amps don't get too hot, because in order to keep the signal from distorting you can't push the tubes too hard. In Class AB, in which pairs of overdriven tubes are used to amplify the living shit out of a signal, you start to see more heat coming from the tubes. The tubes used in AB amps (usually the power amplification stage) are much larger, such as the venerable 30W 6L6 or the 40W KT88.

Look at the link I posted above. Max plate dissipation for one side of a 12AX7 is 1.1W; therefore the total dissipation for the three 12AX7s is going to be under 6.6W. This is no big problem.

In general, Class A amps don't get too hot, because in order to keep the signal from distorting you can't push the tubes too hard. In Class AB, in which pairs of overdriven tubes are used to amplify the living shit out of a signal, you start to see more heat coming from the tubes. The tubes used in AB amps (usually the power amplification stage) are much larger, such as the venerable 30W 6L6 or the 40W KT88.

Look at the link I posted above. Max plate dissipation for one side of a 12AX7 is 1.1W; therefore the total dissipation for the three 12AX7s is going to be under 6.6W. This is no big problem.

In general, Class A amps don't get too hot, because in order to keep the signal from distorting you can't push the tubes too hard. In Class AB, in which pairs of overdriven tubes are used to amplify the living shit out of a signal, you start to see more heat coming from the tubes. The tubes used in AB amps (usually the power amplification stage) are much larger, such as the venerable 30W 6L6 or the 40W KT88.

Since six channels are being amplified (5.1) and three tubes are present, I'm assuming they're using three double-triodes in Class A configuration. Maybe 12AX7s? Note to AOpen: people care about this kind of thing.

12ax7s would certainly make sense, as they're still in production in several places (Russia, China, Yugoslavia) and thus relatively cheap. They're also widely used in preamps of guitar amplifiers, so you can find them at your local Guitar Center...

The EF86 was popular for hi-fi preamp applications like this in the '50s and '60s because they had lots of clean headroom, but they're not used as much any more because the ones still in production have a nasty habit of being microphonic. You'd also need twice as many of them, since they're a single pentode in roughly the same bottle as a 12ax7.

--Troy

For supposedly playing to the low-end audiophile market, AOpen isn't doing a great job. Nowhere can I find what kind of tubes they're using!

Since six channels are being amplified (5.1) and three tubes are present, I'm assuming they're using three double-triodes in Class A configuration. Maybe 12AX7s? Note to AOpen: people care about this kind of thing.

I thought they were more partial to nutria!

So how do they get stereo out of a single tube? It looks too small to be the two-tubes-in-one variety.

It's a dual triode.
Here's the specs on the tube here. Looks like it's good for 3W per channel.

What do you mean "too small to be the two-tubes-in-one variety?" I've seen dual triode pencil tubes that were a lot smaller.

From the pictures on harcop, it looks like a Russian-made Sovtek 6922 (aka E88CC aka 6DJ8). Here's the specs on a 6DJ8. Basically a dual triode like the 12AX7 but somewhat different characteristics.

Looking *very* restrictive...not.

Directive 91/250/EEC approved May 14, 1991 contains explicit provisions (look for "Decompilation 1", the document isn't formatted nicely) stating that reverse engineering is absolutely legal when done:

1. by someone holding the right to use or licensed to use a software product, and
2. as long as reverse engineering is needed to ensure interoperability with other systems or software (even if developed in-house).

So, it seems that reverse engineering that XING player in order to ensure interoperability with Linux was perfectly legal (in EU), and all the obscurity called for by DVD CCA was just a means to make it difficult for anyone to exercise this right.

As for all European Directives, 91/250 had to be accepted by the various national parliaments before becoming effective. The Italian variant of the directive, D.Lgs. 29/12/92 n. 518, is quite explicit on this respect (see Art. 5, modifications to Art. 64-quater -- in Italian!); I don't know about Norway, though.

Moreover, any contractual clause seeking to limit the rights to "observe, study, and test the software in order to understand its working principles" are deemed void by the law, so even calling that the original license agreement prohibited reverse engineering should not be a valid defense line. This, obviously, holds for Europe. I doubt an US court has any jurisdiction on the people writing DeCSS...